XIV 



President's Address 



the enlightened city of Melbourne in the last quarter of the 

 nineteenth century. Ah ! my friends, if you read history, 

 you will find that those of olden time who burnt witches 

 and consulted the stars, who persecuted Galileo and 

 denounced the system of Copernicus as impious, were 

 experienced, sensible, enlightened people — at least, in their 

 own estimation : and it will be no astonishing thing if not 

 a few of the beliefs and practices of the present day come 

 in a century's time, to be regarded as we now regard astrology 

 and demonology. 



The human mind is peculiarly susceptible to bias. It 

 is like a compass, which, left alone, points to the pole, but 

 is most easily deflected by any magnetic mass in the vicinity. 

 Nothing is easier than to take a side and fight for it through 

 thick and thiu ; nothing more difficult than to preserve an 

 unbiassed mind, to suspend judgment until the evidence is 

 all duly set forth. We are born advocates, but we need long 

 and severe training before we become competent judges. To 

 hold the balance true is, then, the part of the really scientific 

 mind — a part most difficult when gusts of personal feeling 

 or the attractions of personal interest affect one all the 

 time. Even in the history of scientific discovery it is most 

 noticeable how an ingenious man concocts a clever theory, 

 and then becomes enamoured with his own creation, and 

 resolutely refuses duly to weigh the evidence against it ; 

 while as to inventors of schemes of supposed practical 

 utility, I speak from a large experience when I say that they 

 are, as a rule, utterly unable to form any sound judgment 

 whatever upon their own proposals. 



Rest assured, then, that the amount of fallacy, error, and 

 prejudice existing amongst us is far greater, and the amount 

 of real knowledge far less, than we fondly suppose ; and the 

 noblest use of life is to expose error and bring truth to light, 

 even if the error is of the most apparently innocuous sort, 

 and the truth of the least obvious importance. 



But what of the practical value of scientific knowledge ? 

 Do not scientific men, some one will probably ask, spend 



